2 The two overarching questions of LBAHow Amazonia functions currently as a regional entity with respect to the natural cycles of water, energy, carbon, nutrient and trace-gases? How will changes in land use and climaten affect the biological, chemical and physical functioning of Amazonia, including its sustainability and influence on global climate?

16 LBA Data PolicyData generated by LBA will become public domain and will be permanently archived in Brazil. The LBA Data Information System (DIS) will provide tools for documenting, storing, searching and distributing these data.All data collected in the field must be sent to LBA-DIS no longer than 2 years after data collection.All LBA data should be available to all LBA researchers. Exceptions may be made in the case of raw or preliminary data, for which distribution can be restricted for a limited period of time.There will be no periods of exclusive rights to publish LBA results. Exceptions are possible for students where graduation requirements prohibit publication of results prior to acceptance of a Thesis.Individual investigators may make their own data more widely available at any time. Outside investigators may be given access to this data as soon as the data have been submitted to the LBA DIS, with some prudent time period for quality control.Each LBA module is responsible for establishing a time schedule for data exchange within the projects and data delivery to LBA DIS. The time limit for data delivery to LBA-DIS will be no more than one year.Data should be analyzed cooperatively by all scientists involved in obtaining them. Especially cooperation across disciplines and among South American, European and North American researchers should be encouraged. Publications resulting from work under LBA should be co-authored by all scientists who have participated substantially in the work, unless some participants choose not to be on the authors’ list. The same applies to presentations at meetings. Special effort by each non-South American researcher should be put into integration of South American researchers in their work and in the publication of the results.Where data are used for modeling or integrating studies, the scientist collecting the data will be credited appropriately, either by co-authorship or by citation. Investigators using data provided by another investigator as a substantial component of a paper should offer the originating investigator co-authorship. In cases where data from other investigators are a minor contribution to a paper, the data should be referenced by a citation. Users of the data will always have to state the source of the data.Specific constraints for certain data sources (e.g. satellite products, global meteorological analysis, etc) may be subject to copyright restrictions which are more limiting than this LBA data policy. It is up to the LBA-OIC to take the first steps in making contacts with officials and institutions in order to prepare specific agreements that will allow LBA scientists to use the data.If conflicts do occur, they should be resolved at the level of the LBA modules.

17 What is Beija-flor?A Web-based metadata search and data retrieval system.A system designed for tracking scientific metadata.A standards-based system.A “virtual system” with data and metadata distributed over the Internet under the control of investigators.A system providing rapid (nightly) updates.

19 LBA Overall Status: Metadata Registered in Beija-florThe “Poster” numbers include entries with only a poster URL. The “Data” numbers include everything else: entries with only a data URL, entries with both Data URL + Poster URL and entries with no URL at all.